knightsoflegend | andres ♔ a tiger's waiting to be tamed

andres ♔ a tiger's waiting to be tamed

♬ clocks - coldplay

WHO || Prince Marcus Andres, Jeanne Gar, Myrilandel de Tanos, Finnick Odair, Spike, Buffy Summers, Sterling Archer, Desmond Descant, Dimitris Sarandis, Lara Tamon, Michael Collins, Dana Green
WHAT || The lost Prince of Andres leads a team of Knights in a coup against Dimitris Sarandis, to reclaim his throne
WHERE || Andres Isle
WHEN || September 19th, 2014
HOW || Actionspam

[ It seems that Wynn was hoping for Sir Mark Sandazhard to reveal his true identity, and to lead the charge against Dimitris Sarandis' tyrannical hold over the island he was born to rule. He was not disappointed, and Prince Marcus Andres stands poised to lead the group of Knights who he's worked beside for two years, to confront Sarandis, save their friend Kat, and search the castle dungeon for the captive Dragon's Claw, Sir Thomas Bancroft.

Before they attempt to answer the castle, however, it's time to reunite the Prince with his childhood friends on the Isle, who had long held out hope that he was still alive, including his once-betrothed, Countess Lara Tamon. Their first task will be to convince Lara to make a risky attempt to draw Kat out of the castle.

The fate of their captured allies, and the future of Andres Isle, lie in their hands. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ ♬ the mask of the priest and the bell of the chapel - yasushi ishii

dimitris finally looks away from mark for a moment, to cast an amused glance in des' direction. ] Oh, I don't know you at all, do I?

I think you may be underestimating some things. [ he slides his hand along the railing, taking a step to the side, as the mind master smirks coolly down at elena. ] For example, I knew Wynn wouldn't allow me to keep some of his precious Knights here as collateral forever. But Kathryne was such a more charming prize than that Dragon's Claw.

Once I had her, well-- [ he gestures over his shoulder, to the dark recesses of the archway behind him on the balcony. two guards emerge, dragging a familiar form between them, beaten, bloodied, pale, and limp. ] Keeping this one alive would have only given Wynn the chance to reclaim him. He was of no more use to me. Perhaps you were looking for him? [ he snaps, and the soldiers heave thomas over the railing. mark jumps back in shock, as the body hits the ground with a sickening crack in front of him. ] Well, there he is.

[ gar gasps in horror, as if it's the fall itself killing thomas in front of them.

but it's clear that he's already been dead, clearer from the gloating expression on dimitris' face as he watches mark triumphantly. ] Thomas... no.

[ Buffy skids into the room behind the others, trying to push her way to the front of the group and throw herself out there for reasons that have nothing to do with the vantage point it actually offers her. She staggers, barely keeping her legs under her as she comes to a stop just beside Mark, reaching one hand out to rest on his shoulder blade. Grabbing for him deliberately was a conscious choice, even before she had to find a way to slow herself down, to keep her feet from carrying her forward to Thomas' side.

No amount of nausea or mourning can force her to look away from the slumped heap of limbs, jutting at odd angles on the floor. A choked noise comes from the back of her throat, a sound effect of the cold pushing through her veins. The wind leaves her chest, knocked straight out of her, replaced by an icy void.

Her lips move in search of something to say, struggling haplessly for a moment, floundering. But she finds a steely resolve buried beneath, everything else used up, raw, spent on the journey to this room (will 30). Lifting her eyes from the body finally, she settles her attention on Sarandis. ]

It's over. You know you can't win this.

[since finnick and co. are late to the party, he takes a second to be like WERWATEY ELENA???? at least ... she's here. although she looks completely different. :'( she'll always be the girl who was drowning in a puddle in his heart. he doesn't get many chances to feel heroic as a ... fucked up ex-child murderer, so he takes them where he can get them.

anyway and then ... there's thomas. thomas who was obviously already dead, only getting more dead as he gets tossed off the balcony. it's not the most depressing traumatizing horrifying thing he's ever seen, but it's still not okay. nothing about this is okay. and he's passed the point where he's going to just stand there like the rest of the world his moving underwater. he reaches behind him for his trident.]

[Archer readies his shotgun as he walks out of the elevator, and surveys the scene. He just frowns, and sighs.]

Anyone else really tired of listening to this A-hole?

[Spike stares, almost numb, as he watches Thomas' body fall too the ground. He isn't surprised, but that doesn't make his heart twist in any less pain. Thomas was never his best friend, but he was a good man. He'd rescued Spike, and it had cost Thomas his life.

Spike swallows and glances up at Dimitris, hatred in his yellow eyes, but when he opens his mouth, it's not more intimidation and threats that comes out. It's far past time for that. If Dimitris isn't aware that not one of them intends to let him walk out of this hall alive by now, then he's really far stupider than anyone gave him credit for.

Instead, it's a song. He's not trying too hard to get the tune right, and his fangs make him lisp a little, but he remembers the words well enough (wis 20).]

As I was going over the far famed Kerry mountains
I first produced my pistol and I then produced my rapier
Saying "Stand and Deliver" for he were a bold deceiver...

[He looks over at Buffy, wondering if she remembers meeting Thomas for the first time as clearly as he does.]

[ With a wisdom check of 17, Buffy sure remembers. Her eyes grow misty as she carries on the tune, off-key and scratchy in the back of her throat. ]

I counted out his money and it made a pretty penny.
I put it in me pocket and I took it home to Jenny.

[Des barely knows Thomas, but the fact that he was one of the main reasons so many of them were fighting here hits him hard, because he cares about these people. Thomas helped get Myri and Spike out. He killed that bastard Jacobson with an elevator, which is always a plus in Des's book.

The urge to shoot Dimitris passes as Spike begins to sing and Des squints at him for a moment, unsure of the significance, but he knows the song (wis 20 total), and it seems the kind of thing that would piss Dimitris off for being rude and unexpected, so he joins in, off-key and awkward, as his hand slides away from his gun.]

She sighed and she swore that she never would deceive me
But the devil take the women for they never can be easy.

[Elena doesn't know the song, but it doesn't matter because she can barely hear them singing anyway. It's all drowned out by the sound of her blood rushing in her ears. She feels sick, knowing that she's too late, that she'd waited too long, and it had cost everything.

There are words she could spew up at him, but they wouldn't mean anything. As much as Dimitris thinks he's the human one, he's not. He's a bigger monster than all of them.

All of them except maybe one.

She takes a few steps forward, joining the others, the ones she thought might still be her friends, and she reaches out to take Myri's hand in a show of solidarity.

Even if they didn't take her back, she was here for them right now.]

[ the anger in mark's eyes steels into something harder, sadder, as he intones, a dirge-like quality to the usually cheery tune: ]

With me ring dum a doodle um dah, whack for the daddy o...

[ gar can barely get the words out, a whisper that gets caught in her throat as she tries and fails to sing: ]

There's whiskey in the...

NO!

[ kat breaks through the song with an anguished, hateful cry, and bursts forward towards the steps that lead up on the right-hand side, a gunshot going off as she takes the first guard right in the chest, hoping to stagger him back enough to push past him, single-minded as she aspires to get up there to the murderous man who left them all here. ]

[ and a sudden flash of black appears beside her on the steps, as her invisible, familiar assailant drops her spell, reaching out to grip kat by the back with clawed fingers. ] Got you.

[ ♬ winter sun - dishwalla

at that exact moment, fred jr., bloodied, bruised, and burnt up by acid, hits the archway into the room right near the second staircase, and sees kat's suicidal run towards the gauntlet of guards, sees asha materialize behind her. ] Kat, no! [ without stopping to think about it, he keeps running, bringing his sword up to slash her arm with his sword, successfully freeing kat of her grip... but he lets out a hurk noise, his body jolting strangely and coming to freeze in place, before he slowly looks down.

the claws of her free hand are pierced through his torso, and as he tries to breathe, to say something, blood jumps out between his lips instead, his face spasming as kat stares on in horror.

asha yanks her claws back, and he staggers backwards down the step. his sword clatters to the floor, and he slumps beside it moments later. ]

Edited 2014-12-16 06:40 (UTC)

[ kat fucking crit failed.

the noise that comes out of her throat is worse than the shout moments before, an animal-like cry of anguish as she moves after fred without giving a fuck who else is around or what is happening or if she gets claws through her own torso when she turns her back. she hits the ground on her knees next to him, in fucking shock. ]

[Well, that group singalong was a nice idea while it lasted. The song dies on Des's tongue as Kat hurls herself at the staircase and after that, it's all a haze. He snarls in Asha's direction and draws his gun in one quick, fluid motion, firing off two shots at the psycho bitch. (atk 25, dmg 20; atk nat 20, dmg... 50 (holy penetration and crit damage batman)]

[ when you roll a 2 on your massive damage die, you're not going to have a good time.

des' first shot takes asha right in the chest, from behind.

his second shot blows her brains out the front of her skull.

her body violently jerks to the side, and then slumps across the steps. dimitris, watching this, clucks his tongue, and intones: ] It is so hard to keep good help these days.

[Spike growls and runs for the staircase, taking care to step on Asha as he passes. Good riddance. He pauses to punch the first guard he comes across (atk 26, dmg 12).]

[ as spike's fist connects with the guard's face, the mind master meets elena's murderous gaze, and her eyes sparkle with amusement. she slides one hand up and over dimitris' shoulder, almost companionably, and then behind them, the air seems to fold open, and she draws him back with her through the dimensional door, which seals shut after them with a spark of blue energy, crackling a seam that hangs there for a moment, before vanishing entirely. ]

[Funny how the one thing she'd been afraid of was this, and not getting killed in the fight.]

Cowards! [She finds her voice in a fit of rage as they run away.] This isn't over!

[Seeing as the two people she wants to see cold on the floor have already high-tailed and run, and she's not super keen on straight up murdering anyone else, she stays close to Myri, gun ready and willing to shoot anyone who tries to hurt her.]

[ The disappearance has Buffy's attention skirting up the stairs to the balcony, dread and panic warring within her, but also a tenuous feeling of relief. Watching Spike tear up the stairs certainly hadn't inspired a lot of faith in her about this getting solved diplomatically, and she has a feeling the people of Andres would be hard-pressed to accept another regime that started with an execution.

The important thing is that they've taken the Isle. She tries to hold onto that, forcing herself to compartmentalize the loss. Refusing to look at where Fred and Thomas lay on the floor until the castle is truly theirs, even if only guards stand in their way.

Guards that, she suspects, Spike won't hesitate to take his fury out on. ] Spike!

[ She tries to call him down, approaching the foot of the stairs. Her axe hangs at the ready by her side, but she's not surging into battle just yet. With their leader gone, seeing themselves outnumbered, they might surrender.

To the guards, she calls: ] Everyone, just put your weapons down. It's too late; the island is ours. No one else has to die tonight. [ There's been more than enough of that (diplomacy 34 sO FUCKING CLOSE TO A NAT 20 DAMMIT). Turning, she searches Myri's eyes. ] If they're still on the Isle, we need to find them. How far could that spell have taken them?

[ the guards hesitate, a moment of tension filling the air, as they exchange looks with one another, trying to weigh what the others are thinking.

finally, however, they lower their guns one by one, placing them on the ground, and putting their hands up. gar keeps her gun up on them, and manages to find her voice to say: ] Your leader's abandoned you. If you don't resist, we'll hold true to our word. No one else will die.

[Next to Elena, Myri is frozen in place. Everything happens all at once and is somehow impossibly slow at the same time. But as she watches Fred fall to the floor, the rest of the room seems to grow muffled (sorry, Buffy. she didn't hear that question at all). Myri can feel her heartbeat pounding in her ears as she prays to the Stargods for one thing:

She wants to feel his pain. Because if she can feel that, then it means he feels it too. But she doesn't. Fred doesn't hurt any longer. So many of the others do, but not him, not now.

Mouth hanging partly open, the realization of Thomas' death seems to compound with the events that have played out and Myri crumples under the weight of it. She falls to her knees, knowing that she doesn't have the power to bring Fred back. She's simply not that powerful. (will crit fail).]

[ it's a little appreciated fact that fred is probably the closest thing mark has to a male best bro in the castle, and witnessing his death in his own family's throne room, during a coup that circles around restoring the island to him, is not an easy moment for the prince.

in fact, angry tears threaten the corner of his eyes, which he keeps from falling, but the raw edge to his fierce words as he follows up gar and buffy's statements says it all. ] Buffy's right. He can't get away. He's not getting away. [ he takes a few purposeful strides towards the first guard, never loosening the grip on his sword. ] If you're looking for a pardon for following that man, you're going to do yourself a great big favor by detailing whatever evacuation plans he had in order.

[ kat's panic turns into something else as she realizes just how still fred is, as he fails to respond to her shaking him, calling his name. when she looks up, scanning the room to find myri with her gaze, she looks dulled, dazed, and lost. ] Help him. [ her voice scratches in her throat, and she repeats herself with quavering insistence, a firm note of useless anger beneath her words, as if myri's lack of response presents a reality she's not ready to accept. ] Myri, come on, you have to help him.

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